“Yes, the Jura is indeed a land of theater which finally has its theater, and also a book to tell its epic story.” These words are from Antoine Vuilleumier, head of Editions de la Société jurassienne d’Émulation, bearer of Make a scene for me!the book that has just been released.
Jolts
With texts by Jérôme Gogniat, Michel Thentz – the initiator of the book, Camille Rebetez, photographs by Pierre Montavon and illustrations by Célestine Braillard, a preface by Robert Sandoz and an afterword by Christine Salvadé, this beautifully crafted book retraces a long story. It took some upheavals to arrive at the inauguration on September 20, 2021. And it's not over: we are still waiting to know the person who will succeed Robert Sandoz, the first director who was unanimous and who is taking over head of the Théâtre du Passage in Neuchâtel.
Theater in the Jura, from North to South, in any case experienced a long and complicated life until the opening of the Théâtre du Jura, where ideas abounded and which Jérôme Gogniat describes in the book. The Frankish historian goes back to the turn of the 19th centurye au XXe centuries, at the time of Festivals“major theatrical and musical events of a patriotic nature”. It is intriguing to note that in 1908 in Porrentruy, the patriotic piece performed then was entitled The meeting of Jura in the Canton of Berna play re-performed in 1924 in Delémont and well received by the regional press, The Democrat et The Country. This last title relates that “the Jura character, frank, friendly, fits perfectly with the Bernese temperament”, before qualifying the picture, notes Jérôme Gogniat. The well-known Jura historian Paul-Otto Bessire himself wrote several of these Festivalswhich brought together up to 150 actors, singers, musicians and extras of both sexes.
The political history of the Jura is therefore very present in its lively theatrical life, where we see that the population shows a certain enthusiasm regardless of political contingencies. But these will also mark the theater.
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